Welcome to a new series here at RotoWire. Every Monday* and Friday, I'll take a look back at the previous series and wrap up everything you need to know about the rapidly changing closer market.
These articles will contain five parts:
Who Earned Saves This Week/Weekend? A division-by-division look at who picked up saves in the previous series, as well as "true" blown saves and a few quick notes.
Closers I'm Worried About: A breakdown of a handful of closers whose jobs seem the most tenuous, as well as a look at the setup men who could be about to step up.
Bullpen Deep Dive: A closer look at a bullpen where everything is even more up in the air than usual, focusing on key stats and usage trends.
Injury Round-Up: A quick look at any currently injured closers and their progress toward a return to action.
Closer Grid: A snapshot of the RotoWire Closer Grid, which can also be found here.
This week's Monday article got pushed to Tuesday due to illness. I've included the saves from Monday's games as well as the weekend's games in the following section.
Who Earned Saves This Weekend?
| American League East | Saves | "True" Blown Saves* | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baltimore | Rico Garcia (3), Anthony Nunez (2) | none | Garcia got the Orioles' first two saves after Ryan Helsley hit the injured list with elbow inflammation at the start of May, but he was then used in the eighth inning Monday prior to Nunez's save. He was |
Welcome to a new series here at RotoWire. Every Monday* and Friday, I'll take a look back at the previous series and wrap up everything you need to know about the rapidly changing closer market.
These articles will contain five parts:
Who Earned Saves This Week/Weekend? A division-by-division look at who picked up saves in the previous series, as well as "true" blown saves and a few quick notes.
Closers I'm Worried About: A breakdown of a handful of closers whose jobs seem the most tenuous, as well as a look at the setup men who could be about to step up.
Bullpen Deep Dive: A closer look at a bullpen where everything is even more up in the air than usual, focusing on key stats and usage trends.
Injury Round-Up: A quick look at any currently injured closers and their progress toward a return to action.
Closer Grid: A snapshot of the RotoWire Closer Grid, which can also be found here.
This week's Monday article got pushed to Tuesday due to illness. I've included the saves from Monday's games as well as the weekend's games in the following section.
Who Earned Saves This Weekend?
| American League East | Saves | "True" Blown Saves* | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baltimore | Rico Garcia (3), Anthony Nunez (2) | none | Garcia got the Orioles' first two saves after Ryan Helsley hit the injured list with elbow inflammation at the start of May, but he was then used in the eighth inning Monday prior to Nunez's save. He was used against the toughest part of the Yankees' lineup Monday (Ben Rice-Aaron Judge-Cody Bellinger), suggesting he's the Orioles' highest-leverage reliever but not a true closer at the moment. |
| Boston | Aroldis Chapman (8) | none | |
| New York | none | Fernando Cruz (1) | Cruz's blown save came in the 10th inning Saturday after David Bednar pitched a clean ninth inning to keep the game tied. For more on Bednar, see "Closers I'm Worried About" below. |
| Tampa Bay | Bryan Baker 2 (11) | none | Baker found himself back in the ninth inning Sunday and Monday after the Rays' previous two saves went to Cole Sulser and Ian Seymour. Baker will still find himself pitching earlier in games occasionally but remains the team's clear top option for saves. |
| Toronto | Louis Varland (5) | none | Jeff Hoffman pitched a scoreless eighth inning prior to Varland's save Friday. Since being demoted to a setup role in late April, he's allowed just one run in six innings with a 6:1 K:BB. That could be an argument to move him back into the ninth inning, or it could be an argument to stick with what's been working. |
*A pitcher can earn a blown save if he enters in what is technically a save situation prior to the ninth inning and blows the lead. For fantasy purposes, we don't really care about blown saves where a reliever was clearly being used as a setup man and coughed up the lead. What matters to us is when a reliever was genuinely being given a chance to save the game but blew it. Therefore, for the purposes of this article, I'm only going to report blown saves of that variety.
| American League Central | Saves | "True" Blown Saves | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chicago | Seranthony Dominguez (9) | none | |
| Cleveland | Cade Smith (11) | none | |
| Detroit | Kenley Jansen (7) | none | |
| Kansas City | none | none | |
| Minnesota | Luis Garcia (1), Yoendrys Gomez (2) | none | Garcia's save Saturday came in the 11th inning. Gomez's second save of the year Sunday was just his first for the Twins, who acquired him for cash last week after he was designated for assignment by the Rays. He's now the seventh different Twins reliever to save a game this season. |
| American League West | Saves | "True" Blown Saves | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Athletics | Hogan Harris (2) | none | See "Closers I'm Worried About" below. |
| Houston | none | none | |
| Los Angeles | none | none | |
| Seattle | Andres Munoz (8) | none | |
| Texas | Jacob Latz (4) | none | Latz's save Sunday required him to get the final six outs of the game. Latz seems to be emerging as a true closer, as he has the Rangers' last four saves. |
| National League East | Saves | "True" Blown Saves | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Atlanta | none | none | |
| Miami | John King (1), Josh Ekness (1) | none | King faced just one batter to record the save Saturday after Michael Petersen opened the ninth inning with a four-run lead and proceeded to create a save situation by allowing three runs. King, a lefty, got the call with lefty C.J. Abrams at the plate, ahead of righties Tyler Phillips and Calvin Faucher. Ekness faced just one batter to record the save Sunday after Andrew Nardi got the first two outs of the inning. Faucher pitched the seventh and eighth innings of that game, while Phillips did not make an appearance. |
| New York | Tobias Myers (1) | none | Myers' save came in the 10th inning Friday. Devin Williams got the win after pitching a clean ninth inning to keep the score tied. |
| Philadelphia | none | none | |
| Washington | PJ Poulin (1) | none | Brad Lord was given what may have been a six-out save opportunity Monday, but he was pulled with one out remaining after Javier Sanoja reached on a two-out error. Even with a pair of righties due up, it was Poulin, not Gus Varland, who was called on to finish the game. Varland had pitched the night prior, but so had Poulin, so it's clear that Varland would have been unavailable. |
| National League Central | Saves | "True" Blown Saves | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chicago | none | none | |
| Cincinnati | Pierce Johnson (1) | none | Tony Santillan entered the ninth inning with a five-run deficit Monday and proceeded to allow four more runs without retiring a single batter. Graham Ashcraft pitched the eighth inning prior to Johnson's save Saturday, with Brock Burke pitching the seventh. Santillan didn't make an appearance. |
| Milwaukee | Shane Drohan (1) | none | Drohan's save Friday was of the three-inning variety. |
| Pittsburgh | none | Yohan Ramirez (2) | Ramirez blew the save in the 10th inning Sunday after Dennis Santana and Gregory Soto pitched the eighth and ninth. |
| St. Louis | none | Riley O'Brien (3) |
| National League West | Saves | "True" Blown Saves | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arizona | Paul Sewald 2 (9) | none | |
| Colorado | Juan Mejia (2) | Jimmy Herget (1) | Mejia's save Monday came in the 11th inning after Herget blew the save in the ninth. Victor Vodnik was available but pitched the 10th inning instead. |
| Los Angeles | Tanner Scott (3) | none | Scott now has all three saves since Edwin Diaz hit the injured list April 20. |
| San Diego | Mason Miller (12) | none | |
| San Francisco | none | none | Caleb Kilian was used in a save-adjacent situation Friday, pitching the ninth inning with a four-run lead. He allowed one run but closed out the game for the win. |
Closers I'm Worried About
Jack Perkins, Athletics: I and many others were excited about the possibility of Perkins taking over as a true closer in Sacramento, as he received all three save chances he was available for from April 21 to April 30. So far in the month of May, however, Perkins doesn't have a single save. He did get the ball in a save opportunity Friday, but he was pulled after recording just two outs and allowing one run. Hogan Harris got the ball for the final out and the save.
Friday's outing was just Perkins' second of the month, and he gave up runs in both games. His appearance last Wednesday against the Phillies was particularly poor and wasn't close to normal closer usage, either. He entered the seventh inning with a one-run lead, and while he retired the side in order in that frame, he stuck around for the eighth inning and got just one more out while allowing four runs.
Perkins remains the reliever I'd trust most in a high-leverage situation for the Athletics, and that's probably true for the team as well. While his ERA now sits at an unremarkable 4.11, his 2.53 SIERA is much better, the product of a 31.3 percent strikeout rate and 7.5 percent walk rate. He's a very good reliever, but he's more of a committee leader or high-leverage weapon than a true closer, so in some of the shallower leagues where he was picked up in late April, he can probably be dropped.
Worry-o-meter: 3 out of 5
Setup man to stash: Nobody, or maybe Hogan Harris. Harris got the most recent save while cleaning up Perkins' mess, his second of the year, and he's the top lefty in the Athletics' bullpen at the moment. But Perkins' inclusion in this spot is more about him not being a true closer than it is about someone who's going to claim the job from him. While some teams do open the year with a closer committee only to eventually find someone good enough to claim a traditional closer role, that doesn't seem to be the intention in Sacramento.
David Bednar, Yankees: Bednar has featured multiple times in this column this season, as it's been an up-and-down year for the 31-year-old righty. He allowed runs in four of his first seven appearances of the year, then no runs in his next four, and now he's again allowed runs in four of his last six outings.
Bednar most recently pitched the ninth inning of a tie game Sunday against the Brewers and allowed a walk-off homer to Brice Turang to lose the game. He now owns a 3.71 ERA and 1.41 WHIP on the year — not horrible, but much worse than you'd expect for a closer on one of the best teams in the league. His 27.3 percent strikeout rate and 6.5 percent walk rate are both quite good, however, and he owns a strong 56.3 percent groundball rate, leading to a 2.78 ERA and 2.60 SIERA.
There's every chance Bednar will pull out of his second slump of the year and end up just fine. Given that he's been quite inconsistent the past few years, though, losing his closer job in both 2024 and 2025, it can't be ruled out that he'll pitch his way out of the ninth inning yet again. There's also the fact that his velocity is down this season, as his fastball has gone from 97.0 mph last season to 95.7 mph this year, though it's ticked back up to 96.1 mph over his last six outings. Whether due to inconsistency or diminished stuff, the Yankees could look for an upgrade at the trade deadline, but a change in the next week or two is probably unlikely.
Worry-o-meter: 2 out of 5
Setup man to stash: Probably Fernando Cruz. When Bednar featured in this section earlier in the season, I listed Camilo Doval here instead, but Cruz is now second after Bednar in leverage index, while Doval has slipped all the way down to sixth. Cruz's ERA (2.93) is far better than Doval's (5.74), and he also has a better strikeout rate (32.9 percent to 25.4 percent). Doval has a much better walk rate (5.4 percent to 15.7 percent) and WHIP (1.15 to 1.57), however. The right answer is probably that neither setup man is all that worth stashing, and that if the Yankees do demote Bednar from the closer role, it'll come after acquiring a more reliable closer at the trade deadline.
Bullpen Deep Dive
San Francisco Giants
| 2026 Stats | Saves | ERA | WHIP | SIERA | K% | BB% | K-BB% | Stuff+ | Location+ | gmLI* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Erik Miller (L) | 2 | 3.18 | 1.24 | 2.65 | 35.4% | 12.5% | 22.9% | 117 | 87 | 1.16 |
| Caleb Kilian | 1 | 1.50 | 1.17 | 4.51 | 24.0% | 16.0% | 8.0% | 105 | 98 | 1.05 |
| Keaton Winn | 0 | 2.45 | 0.82 | 3.69 | 22.1% | 8.8% | 13.2% | 105 | 107 | 1.05 |
| Joel Peguero** | 0 | 2.70 | 0.90 | 4.29 | 7.1% | 7.1% | 0.0% | 98 | 103 | 0.79 |
| Matt Gage (L) | 0 | 1.02 | 1.08 | 5.25 | 15.7% | 14.3% | 1.4% | 96 | 97 | 1.15 |
*gmLI is the average Leverage Index when a pitcher enters the game. 1.0 is average; closers typically sit north of 1.50.
**Peguero only just returned from a Grade 2 hamstring strain a week ago, so his numbers here cover just three appearances.
The Giants finally demoted Ryan Walker from a high-leverage role, and not only that, they demoted him all the way to the minors, optioning him to Triple-A Sacramento on Sunday. San Francisco used a committee approach even while Walker was still on the team, so it's likely they continue to spread the saves around for the foreseeable future, but identifying the leading candidate for saves is nevertheless worthwhile for many leagues.
Caleb Kilian is getting the most attention in fantasy circles at the moment, likely because he has the team's most recent saves, but the table above should make it clear that he's not necessarily an obvious candidate to take the closer job and run with it. While he has a strong ERA, his strikeout rate is barely above average, and combined with a very poor walk rate, that leads to far worse ERA estimators. Kilian's previous major-league numbers as a starter were quite poor, and he wasn't good in the minors last year while working as a reliever following a shoulder injury in 2024, so while he might be a good bet to earn the Giants' next save, it's hard to see him making a convincing case for a true closer's job.
Keaton Winn and Joel Peguero are Kilian's top right-handed competition. Winn's strikeout rate is unimpressive for a high-leverage reliever, but he matches Kilian in Stuff+ and has shown much better control. He's struggled to miss bats in recent outings, though, striking out just two batters in his last eight appearances, so he's not making a great case for saves at the moment. Peguero is also struggling to miss bats and probably needs a few more good outings before he's trusted with high-leverage work, as he missed over a month at the start of the season due to a hamstring strain, but he has a closer's repertoire, featuring a 100.4-mph fastball, a 99.2-mph sinker and a 93.3-mph slider.
Lefties Erik Miller and Matt Gage have also seen plenty of high-leverage work, with Miller leading all Giants' currently on the active roster with two saves. He's nearly ready to return from a lower-back strain and could be the top option for saves once active, as his strikeout rate and Stuff+ dwarf the rest of the competition. His control isn't good, but a 12.5 percent walk rate is palatable as long as it comes with a sufficient number of strikeouts. Being a lefty hurts his chances, but he should at minimum see a meaningful minority of the save opportunities if this situation remains a committee. Fellow high-leverage lefty Matt Gage has a strong ERA and WHIP but has very poor strikeout and walk rates and grades out sub-par by both Stuff+ and Location+, so he's unlikely to see much time in the ninth inning.
Injury Round-Up
Ben Joyce, Angels: Joyce has been on a rehab assignment for about two weeks as he works his way back from shoulder surgery, a procedure he underwent last May. That means he ought to be close to returning, but he was scratched from a scheduled rehab appearance Sunday because he wasn't recovering as fast as the Angels hoped.
Angels manager Kurt Suzuki claimed to not be worried, but fantasy managers would be wise to worry nonetheless due to Joyce's extensive injury history. He's thrown just 49 career innings since making his big-league debut back in 2023. If and when he eventually gets healthy, however, he could push for the closer job in Anaheim, as the competition is far from strong. Ryan Zeferjahn is the only Angel on the active roster who has a single save.
Josh Hader, Astros: Hader has been on a rehab assignment for the last week as he works his way back from biceps tendinitis, an injury which popped up this February as he ramped back up from a shoulder strain which ended his 2025 campaign last August. He's made two appearances, striking out three and giving up one hit, one walk and no runs across two innings of work. He'll be eligible to return in just under two weeks and should immediately reclaim his closer job once healthy. Bryan King looks like the top option for saves in Houston until that happens.
Edwin Diaz, Dodgers: Diaz was shifted to the 60-day injured list on Sunday as he recovers from surgery to remove loose bodies from his elbow, a procedure which took place back on April 22. He'll be eligible to return in late June but isn't expected to return until after the All-Star break. Tanner Scott has all three Dodgers saves since Diaz went under the knife.
Ryan Helsley, Orioles: Helsley would be eligible to return from the injured list in the next few days after he hit the injured list with elbow inflammation in late April, but he's yet to be cleared to begin a throwing program. An MRI revealed no structural damage, so his absence still isn't expected to be a long one, but he isn't expected back before late May. Rico Garcia looks like the primary option for saves in Helsley's absence, but he isn't being used strictly as a closer. He faced the toughest part of the Yankees' lineup in the eighth inning Monday before giving the ball to Anthony Nunez for the save.
Pete Fairbanks, Marlins: Fairbanks is expected to return from the 15-day injured list when first eligible Wednesday. He's been dealing with a nerve issue in his hand, something which has bothered him at other points in his career but which doesn't require a lengthy absence. Tyler Phillips, Calvin Faucher and Josh Ekness have the Marlins' last three saves, but Fairbanks should reclaim the closer title upon his activation.
Emilio Pagan, Reds: Pagan hit the injured list with a left hamstring strain last Wednesday and is expected to miss 4-to-8 weeks. Most of the Reds' bullpen is struggling at the moment, and the team's only save in Pagan's absence went unexpectedly to Pierce Johnson on Saturday. Tony Santillan and Graham Ashcraft could also be in the mix.
Carlos Estevez, Royals: Estevez was diagnosed with a rotator cuff strain Thursday, offering an explanation for why his velocity has been significantly down all year. Anyone holding him through his absence with a bruised foot can safely drop him now, as it will be at least another couple weeks before he's cleared to resume throwing. Lucas Erceg remains firmly the closer in Kansas City in his absence.
Closer Grid
This article will be published every Monday and Friday this season, taking a look back at the previous series' top closer news. For more closer updates, check out the RotoWire Closer Grid, which changes daily.
Here's how the whole thing looks as of Tuesday afternoon:
*part of a committee
Questions about any of the closers covered above or any relievers you're considering picking up off the waiver wire? Let me know in the comments below.
